Disasters in US forced 3.3m out of their homes

More than 3.3 million US citizens were forced to evacuate their homes last year due to natural disasters such as hurricanes, tornadoes or wildfires, the United States Census Bureau says.

The disasters caused 474 deaths and $165 billion in economic damage, it said.

Hurricanes forced most people, more than 1.6 million, almost half of the evacuated population, to leave their homes, followed by floods, fires and tornadoes.

The data, collected from 68,504 respondents from Jan 4 to 16, also showed that nearly 40 percent returned to their homes within a week. Nearly 16 percent said they had not returned home and may have left their homes permanently, and 12 percent were absent from their homes for more than six months.

Distressing numbers

"These numbers are very distressing," Michael Gerrard, director of the Sabin Center for Climate Change Law at Columbia University in New York, told NBC News.

"These numbers are what one would expect to find in a developing country. It's appalling to see them in the United States. They're only going to get worse in the years to come because climate change is making extreme weather events more frequent and more severe."

The poor were affected more. More than 860,000 people from households with incomes less than $25,000 were displaced last year, more than any other income group. Households with incomes of $150,000 more had the least number of people forced to evacuate.

Louisiana had the highest evacuation rate of all states. With more than 368,000 people displaced, its disaster evacuation rate was almost 8,000 per 100,000 people.

Florida, with nearly 889,000 people displaced, followed Louisiana, with an evacuation rate of almost 4,000 per 100,000. Idaho appeared to be the safest state with regard to natural disasters. Only 205 per 100,000 of its people had to evacuate.

The National Center for Environmental Information of the National Oceanic and Atmosphere Administration estimated that there were 18 weather disaster events with losses exceeding a value of $1 billion each in the US last year.

Apart from droughts, winter storms and wildfires, severe storms accounted for the most natural disasters.

Flooding forced Yellowstone National Park in Wyoming, Montana and Idaho to evacuate and close all its entrances. The Yellowstone River recorded water levels that had not been seen for more than 100 years.

Climate change has caused more natural disasters to occur in recent years, authorities said. The US Geological Survey has forecast that long-term effects of climate change will include a decrease in sea ice, an increase in permafrost thawing, an increase in heat waves and heavy precipitation, and decreased water resources in semiarid regions.

Agencies contributed to this story.